Re: building old 386/486 systems.. AT form factor vs ATX

Posted on 2015-08-28, 11:29

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Was going to say if your looking for a pre built system the big brands were pretty good back in those days. This was before they started making cheap crap that killed off the local shops who filled the cheap/Home PC market of back then. Bonus is they often have PS2 ports for keyboard mouse. Other …

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Re: What modern hardware will be collectible in the future?

Posted on 2015-08-27, 15:15

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm already slowly collecting "end of the line" WinXP hardware. As Phil said I do like loading an OS onto the final hardware that was supported. Alot of that hardware is still in usable PC's so price hasn't dropped enough yet and I'm in no rush. Thing is OS wise hardware requirements haven't changed …

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Re: DOS 6.22 / Windows 95 dual boot.

Posted on 2015-08-27, 14:55

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by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

DX2/66 with 8Mb back in the day. Was more useful then running Win3.x If your stripping away the GUI Dos7 is perfect for any 486. I would argue that Win95 is very nice for copying files, networking, all the "OS" type stuff for a 486 as well even if it is slow, its just easier to work with then Win3.x …

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Re: Ressurecting my Compaq Presario CDS 520

Posted on 2015-08-26, 15:28

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

We got return to zork bundled with our PC, it was a 2x Faster drives are actually a pain if your not constantly reading the drive due to spin up/spin down times. From memory Zork is always using the drive for at least audio so you may be alright. If not there are programs to slow down newer drives. …

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Re: DOS 6.22 / Windows 95 dual boot.

Posted on 2015-08-26, 14:52

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by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

+1 for just using Win9x's version of DOS. I have a shortcut on the desktop to command.com with the "force MS dos mode" or something like that and the autoexec and config.sys entered there. Even if you turn off the PC it will boot back into dos until you finally type exit. if you also want Win3x …

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Re: Suntac 286 saved from the dump (now with pictures!)

Posted on 2015-08-26, 14:40

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Indeed good work saving any old PC but a 286! How big is the HDD/CF card? My 486 hangs on 8GB drives even though it detects it fine. Dropping a 6GB HDD or 4GB CF works fine. maybe the controller is just maxed out? I would try booting from a known working floppy without any hard drive, 1 less thing …

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Re: Happy Birthday Win95

Posted on 2015-08-26, 14:17

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mates dad was a programmer and had a few OEM copies which I brought for $30 a month or 2 after it came out in Oz. We only had a PC for about 6 months and after a week or so hating it. Once I worked out start menu is "windows" and My computer is "dos" things got much easier, and was way more user …

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Re: From best to worst - BX boards

Posted on 2015-08-26, 14:09

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm right now I have a QDI Brilliant IV which is a Dual P2 400 board. It says it can unofficially support P3 as long as the clock is 100mhz. I have an extra P3 550 on the way. Unsure if it would go up to 800mhz though. I've got 2 Duel Slot 1 boards. One in a Compaq Prolient 1600 and a P2B-DS (Rev …

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Re: Will this PC speaker work or is it a buzzer?

Posted on 2015-08-26, 13:59

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Anyone know of any other games that sound wrong with a piezo? I don't have a lot of PC speaker games on my list but Duke was one of them

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Re: building old 386/486 systems.. AT form factor vs ATX

Posted on 2015-08-26, 13:56

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If your still after a 486 motherboard, I'd first go with what's available to you. Its still possible to get one for a good price if your prepared to wait and not hung up on an exact board. Regarding slots anything other then ISA is a bonus rather then a deal breaker if you ask me. ISA is ISA, don't …

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Re: 10 Reasons for a Pentium 4 Windows 98 DOS Retro Gaming PC :)

Posted on 2015-08-21, 11:43

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If nothing else P4's do make good general dogsbody retro PC. For Dos, yes you really want ISA, for XP something bit faster is nicer. It is a cheap way to test the waters before realising your more of a dosbox person then a mess round with hardware person. I had a P4 which I picked up for free, …

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Re: 8Mhz Turbo XT System

Posted on 2015-08-06, 17:26

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Wayyyy to old for me. Like you this pre dates me and put off by cga, HDD's etc not being compatible with newer stuff. Great to see another one lives though 😀 and even a touch of recent hardware with the SD card. I like

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Re: The Ultimate ATX Computer Case.

Posted on 2015-08-06, 17:22

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

as far as wtf case designs go, that isn't that bad, be ashame to spoil his smile by putting something in a 5.25 bay though. In keeping with your chocolate vs Vanilla choice, Something that's interesting but not your preferred choice? E.g. I prefer Intel & NVidia so building a AMD/ATI PC running …

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Re: Practical uses for a 10MHz 8088 IBM Clone from 1988?

Posted on 2015-08-06, 16:56

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Watched this just the other day, features these old drives starting up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T22D4fB41lM&list=PLNUGXBVN_aszDuWjcCuG6WRgZcUcYdDzy As for practical use? probably none. But if your interested in it keep it and sell it on when your done. Their money value is worth much more …

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Re: Retrotunes as your cellphone ringtone

Posted on 2015-08-06, 16:50

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by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Back when I had my old Nokia 3310 had a the pager tune from the original GTA. These days I'm lazy and just go with something preloaded

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Re: Packard Bell brand being reintroduced to US market...

Posted on 2015-08-06, 15:37

by

by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

I was pleasantly surprised that after Lenovo was sold to China the quality didn't drop significantly. Not counting the dirt cheap laptops the rest of the range seem pretty reliable and that's all I care about in a business machine which was always Lenovo key market. I've was less then impressed with …

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Re: Asus P2B-DS?

Posted on 2015-08-06, 15:17

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Haven't got round to it yet but install Netware, if for nothing else for the screensaver. The more CPU's the more snakes!!! The higher the CPU load the longer the snakes. pretty cool stuff. Found this but they cheat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RitHgCBNrNs

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Re: Other hobbies?

Posted on 2015-08-06, 14:58

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by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Seems like I'm fairly normal, well for the people that hang round here ;) -Traveling, which was the whole reason for leaving the ass end of the world. Still miss Oz but its so far from anything! -Model trains, Started collecting Hornby Dublo which is easier to find in the UK then Oz when I thought I …

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Re: There is no successor to Warcraft II

Posted on 2015-07-31, 15:55

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by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

I totally get where you are coming from in regards to not being able to relate to the game world. It's also what stopped me playing StarCraft. Part of me enjoys the original Warcraft with more authentic weapons and a bit of magic, vs War2 with the technology that is out of place in the middle ages …

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Re: AoE I era MIDI sound options

Posted on 2015-07-31, 15:52

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Any Windows game will sound better with a Sound Canvas 55 over a MT32. MT32 is more aimed at early 90's dos games. Think Sierra games such as Monkey Island. Mid-late 90's till the end of Midi used General Midi, with the SC55 considered to be the best of the best by a lot of people. Yamaha coming a …

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